Community Maintenance Program

List of Acronyms

CASA

Computerized Assessment of Substance Abuse

CCRA

Corrections and Conditional Release Act

CD

Commissioner's Directive

CLAI

Computerized Lifestyle Assessment Instrument

CPIC

Canadian Police Information Centre

CRS

Corporate Reporting System

CSC

Correctional Service Canada

EC

Effective Corrections

ICPM

Integrated Correctional Program Model

IMRS

Integrated Management Reporting System

NGO

Non-governmental Organization

NSAP

National Substance Abuse Program

OMS

Offender Management System

PS

Public Safety

SARA

Spousal Assault Risk Assessment

SIR-R1

Statistical Information on Recidivism - Revised 1

SPSS

Statistical Package for the Social Sciences

1. Introduction

1.1. Background

Correctional programs in the community play an integral role in maintaining the knowledge and skills acquired through institutional program participation after offenders are released to the community. Research has shown crime reduction through effective correctional treatment programs in the target domains of education, employment (Brews et al., 2010; Gillis & Nafekh, 2005; Taylor et al., 2008), substance abuse, living skills, sexual offending, violent offending, and family violence (Dowden, Antonowics & Andrews, 2003; Motiuk, Cousineau, & Gileno, 2005; Nafekh et al., 2009). Maintenance programming plays an important part in community reintegration by ensuring continuity of care (in accordance with Commissioner's Directive [CD] 726: Correctional Programs; Correctional Service Canada [CSC], 2003a) in order to maximize treatment outcome.

Maintenance components are included in all core correctional programs offered by the Correctional Service Canada (CSC).^{Footnote 1} However, providing offenders with maintenance programming in the community can be challenging for several reasons. First, an offender may be required to take several follow-up programs (Yazar, 2003). Second, access to and availability of, programs for offenders, particularly in remote areas, may present significant barriers to participation in maintenance programs in the community (Yazar, 2003). As such, the Community Maintenance Program was developed in 2001 to address the challenges associated with the design and delivery of specialized maintenance programs in the community, particularly to the address concerns over access to, and availability of programs in the community (Yazar, 2003). Specifically, the program was designed to address these specific challenges (CSC, 2004a, p. 9):

• Lack of availability of after-care, especially in remote locations and for higher risk offenders;
• Lengthy waiting periods for available programs;
• Requirements for multiple maintenance programs;
• Excessive training time required to achieve competence in multiple maintenance programs; and,
• Difficulty generating the required numbers of offenders are smaller sites to be able to deliver those programs

In addition, it appeared that the Community Maintenance Program was being implemented in such a way as to gradually replace specialized maintenance programs (CSC, 2005). According to the September 2005 entry in CSC's Permanent Briefing Book,

"by the end of 2006-2007, CMP will be the primary maintenance strategy in the community"

(p. 2).

In 2009, CSC indicated that the National Substance Abuse Program (NSAP) - Maintenance Program in the community

"is being phased out in order to be replaced by the Community Maintenance Program"

(CSC, 2009d, p. 61).

As of March 2008, the Community Maintenance Program was identified as

"the priority intervention in the community" and "the follow-up prevention/self-management program for all CSC programs (with the exception of Sex Offender programs)"

(Memorandum, March 7, 2008, p.1 and p.3).^{Footnote 2}

1.2. Policy and Legislation

CSC is mandated by law to provide correctional programs (Corrections and Conditional Release Act [CCRA], 1992, s. 5[b])^{Footnote 3}. The CCRA (1992), section 3, paragraph 5(b) and sections 76, 77, 79 and 80 provide the legislative framework guiding the development, implementation, and maintenance of reintegration programming for CSC. Specifically, section 5(b) states that CSC is responsible for

"the provision of programs that contribute to the rehabilitation of offenders and to their successful reintegration into the community".

In addition to the CCRA, several Commissioner's Directives (CD)^{Footnote 4} provide a policy framework from which CSC can implement reintegration programming. The policy objectives outlined in CD 726: Correctional Programs (CSC, 2003a) are

"to ensure that correctional programs meet the identified needs of offenders and promote successful reintegration"

(p. 1) and

"to ensure the integrity and effectiveness of the correctional programs offered to offenders"

(p. 1).

Further, one of the principles outlined in CD 700: Correctional Interventions (CSC, 2006) states that

"case management practices and decisions must be responsive to, and respectful of, the diverse and individual needs of the offender population such as culture, language, ethnicity, religion, linguistic differences, etc..."

(p. 6). The importance of responsivity^{Footnote 5} considerations was reiterated in CD 726: Correctional Programs, which states that correctional programs must

"take into account the particular characteristics of offenders to help ensure that they derive maximum benefit"

(CSC, 2003a, p. 3).^{Footnote 6}

1.3. Effective Corrections Initiative and Programs Infrastructure

In May 1996, the Solicitor General of Canada and the Minister of Justice recommended a strategy to better protect Canadians while reducing Canada's incarceration rate and its associated costs. In response to this strategy, funding was provided for the Effective Corrections Initiative in 2000 to three agencies within the Government of Canada Public Safety Portfolio^{Footnote 7} to implement three categories of offender interventions:

1. Aboriginal corrections,
2. community corrections infrastructure, and
3. public education/citizen engagement.

Effective Corrections funding supported initiatives that were designed to enhance the community corrections infrastructure, including Community Residential Alternatives, training and job placements, and programs and program infrastructure, under which falls the Community Maintenance Program.

1.3.1. Community Maintenance Program: Background

The Community Maintenance Program was developed in 2001 in response to challenges in the provision of correctional treatment programs in the community (CSC, 2004a). These challenges included the availability of aftercare services, particularly in remote areas and for higher risk offenders, lengthy waitlists for programs, and the need for multiple maintenance programs to meet the needs of offenders. In smaller sites, it was difficult to have a sufficient number of offenders to warrant program delivery. In addition, the Community Maintenance Program was intended to reduce the training time that would be required to ensure that program delivery staff members met competency requirements in multiple maintenance programs.

The Community Maintenance Program was designed to overcome these difficulties by offering one generic program that served as aftercare to almost every reintegration program. Its potential advantage over the previous maintenance strategy (i.e., an array of specialized community maintenance programs) included its flexibility. Specifically, after one training session, a qualified facilitator would be able to provide aftercare for most types of offenders in the community, either individually or in a group (CSC, 2004a). It was also CSC's first aftercare program which targeted all types of criminal re-offending rather than individual risk factors or specific types of crime (CSC, 2004a).

The Community Maintenance Program was also intended to enhance efforts to support non-governmental organization (NGO) service providers. It was expected that engaging community partners in the delivery of one standardized program would help to ensure consistent delivery and quality assurance, to streamline management, and to enable assessment of program effectiveness. Additional information on the theoretical bases of the Community Maintenance Program and the guidelines on which the Community Maintenance Program was developed are provided in Appendix B.

1.3.1.1. Target Group and Service Delivery Model

When the Community Maintenance Program was first implemented, offenders who had completed any of the following programs were eligible to participate in the Community Maintenance Program (CSC, 2004b): Violence Prevention Program, Moderate or High Intensity Family Violence Programs, Substance Abuse Programs, Counterpoint, Anger and Emotions, and Aboriginal-specific programs (In Search of Your Warrior, Aboriginal Offenders Substance Abuse Program and the National Aboriginal High Intensity Family Violence Program). Initially only offenders who presented a moderate to high risk to re-offend (as measured by the Statistical Information on Recidivism - Revised 1 [SIR-R1]) were eligible for the Community Maintenance Program. As of 2005, offenders at all levels of risk were eligible. In March 2008, the Community Maintenance Program was identified as "the priority intervention in the community" with the exception of sex offender programs (Director, Reintegration Programs, Memorandum, March 7, 2008). By June 2009, however, offenders who completed any correctional program became eligible to participate in the Community Maintenance Program (CSC, 2009b; 2009d).

The objective of the Community Maintenance Program is to "review and apply a selected sub-set of "core" skills learned in the feeder programs to real-life tasks, problems and high-risk situations in the community in order to prevent re-offending" (CSC, 2004b, p.24). The six core skills addressed by the Community Maintenance Program include:

1. working towards goals;
2. self-management;
3. problem-solving;
4. dealing with high-risk thinking;
5. emotions management; and
6. healthy relationships (Yazar, 2008).

In addition, the Community Maintenance Program targets seven criminogenic need domains,^{Footnote 8} and the program can be delivered by qualified and trained facilitators, including community parole officers, service providers from NGOs and psychologists (CSC, 2004b). A more detailed program description is provided in Appendix B.

1.3.1.2. Program Theory and Developmental Background

The Community Maintenance Program is based on the relapse prevention and self-regulation management models of treatment. Programs that incorporate relapse prevention have been used with substance-abusing offenders (Peters, 1993), sexual offenders (Laws, 1999; Ward & Hudson, 1996), and general offenders (Dowden, et al., 2003). Results from a meta-analytic review of the effectiveness of relapse prevention suggested it was moderately successful, in that there was a 15% difference in recidivism rates between participants of programs that incorporated a relapse prevention component into their framework and those that did not (i.e., recidivism rates of 42.5% and 57.5%, respectively; Dowden et al., 2003). Moreover, as the number of relapse prevention components targeted within the program increased, the therapeutic potential of the program was enhanced considerably (Dowden et al., 2003). When the various elements of relapse prevention were examined individually, the components that were most effective included providing training to significant others, examination of the offence cycle (i.e., the precursors that lead to criminal behaviour), and relapse rehearsal.^{Footnote 9} Coping skills and booster sessions were found to be the least effective components.

Dowden and colleagues (2003) also found that relapse prevention was effective when the program adhered to the principles of effective correctional interventions (i.e., risk, need, and responsivity) and that the effect was additive, such that the greatest effect was observed for relapse prevention programs that adhered to all three principles. Relapse prevention programs that adhered to one or none of the principles did not have any effect on recidivism.

There is a substantial amount of evidence to suggest that cognitive-behavioural programs facilitate the safe and successful reintegration of offenders into the community (Andrews et al., 1990; Dowden & Andrews, 2000; French & Gendreau, 2006; Hanson et al., 2002; Hanson, Bourgon, Helmus & Hodgson, 2009; Lipsey, Chapman, & Landenberger, 2001). Research has shown that offenders who participate in cognitive-behavioural programs that target their risk and needs have lower rates of institutional misconducts (French & Gendreau, 2006). Further, there is ample evidence suggesting that correctional programs reduce rates of recidivism (Andrews et al, 1990; Bonta & Andrews, 2007; Dowden & Andrews, 2000, 2004; Hanson et al., 2002; Hanson et al., 2009; Lipsey et al., 2001; Lowenkamp, Latessa, & Smith, 2006; Nicholaichuk & Yates, 2002). The recently completed evaluation of CSC's Correctional Programs (Nafekh et al., 2009) found that participation in correctional programs was associated with reductions in any readmissions (first readmission for technical revocations or new offence). However, Nafekh and colleagues also found that the effectiveness of correctional program participation was reduced when the programs did not correspond to offenders' identified needs.

1.3.1.3. Community Maintenance Program Pilot

The Community Maintenance Program was piloted in 2003 at ten sites across the country, including eight urban and two mixed urban/remote locations. An internal review of the pilot program found that, by August 2004, 95 offenders had participated in the program, of whom 28 (i.e., 29%) had not completed the program due to suspension or completion of their sentence (i.e., reaching their warrant expiry date or WED) prior to program completion (CSC, 2004a).^{Footnote 10}

1.4. Governance Structure

The Assistant Commissioner, Correctional Operations and Programs (ACCOP), is accountable for the Effective Corrections Initiative. With regards to the Community Maintenance Program, at the national level, the Offender Programs and Reintegration Branch is responsible for the development of tools and training materials as well as the overall monitoring of the program. At the regional level, regional trainers (who are also the regional managers) are responsible for initial training and ongoing supervision of program delivery as well as planning for regional implementation. At the program site level (the Parole District), the Chief of Programs is responsible for the implementation of the program and for program planning.

1.5. Planned Results

The Community Maintenance Program is comprised of two components:

1. a cognitive-behavioural based correctional program for offenders in the community; and
2. a program infrastructure component which focuses on program service delivery.

The planned results of the Community Maintenance Program (cognitive-behaviour based correctional program component) defined in the Effective Corrections Evaluation Framework (CSC, 2004a) were as follows:^{Footnote 11}

• Reduce the number of suspensions in the community due to elevated risk in cases where the risk can be safely addressed by programming instead of through suspension; and,
• Reduce recidivism for moderate to high risk offenders.

The planned results of the program infrastructure component of the Community Maintenance Program (focuses on program service delivery), are to:

• Reduce the time for admission to maintenance programming after release to the community;
• Increase the number of admissions to maintenance programming in the community, especially in remote regions;
• Reduce the number of cross-referrals to multiple maintenance programs in the community;
• Reduce the need for multiple maintenance programs in the community;
• Increase the information available to parole officers in the community through Community Maintenance Program casework records (CWR), intake, interim and final reports, and case-conferencing;
• Increase the number of non-CSC service providers (from the not-for-profit and voluntary sectors) providing CSC reintegration programs;
• Create regional capacity for quality review for CSC and non-CSC program providers;
• Create national capacity for training facilitators; and,
• Create regional capacity for program delivery.

1.6. Evaluation Context

The present evaluation was summative in nature and was conducted to assess the continued relevance, implementation, success, cost-effectiveness, and unintended outcomes of the Community Maintenance Program.

The Community Maintenance Program was previously evaluated as part of the evaluation of CSC's Correctional Programs (Nafekh et al., 2009). Results from this evaluation revealed that Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal male Community Maintenance Program participants were more likely to have positive community correctional outcomes than their counterparts in an untreated comparison group. In addition, the dropout rate for the Community Maintenance Program (47%) was higher than the dropout rates for substance abuse maintenance and family violence maintenance programs (31% and 17%, respectively). However, due to the scope of the evaluation of CSC's Correctional Programs, the evaluation of the Community Maintenance Program focused on the statistical analysis of outcomes and it was not possible to examine factors that might have contributed to the high dropout rate.

One of the recommendations from the evaluation of Correctional Programs (Nafekh et al., 2009) was to strengthen community maintenance programs to increase the program completion rate. In response, the Correctional Operations and Programs Sector^{Footnote 12} proposed to develop an Integrated Correctional Program Model (ICPM) that will include a Community Maintenance Component as well as an integrated Motivation-Based Intervention Strategy which will enable staff members to assess and intervene with offenders who refuse, drop out of, or fail to participate in, the Community Maintenance Program. The development and research review of the pilot program are scheduled for completion in January 2010 and March 2011, respectively.

The present evaluation focused exclusively on the Community Maintenance Program and included interviews with Community Maintenance Program participants in order to collect qualitative information to assist in the interpretation of quantitative findings. The evaluation also examined the accessibility of the Community Maintenance Program, as one of the goals of the program was to increase admissions to maintenance programming in remote regions or other areas where delivery of specialized maintenance programs might not be feasible for various reasons (e.g., operational factors, insufficient number of offenders to warrant delivery of specialized maintenance programs).

Given that the Community Maintenance Program is being implemented in such a way as to gradually replace specialized maintenance programs (CSC, 2005), the present evaluation also assessed the effectiveness of the Community Maintenance Program compared to specialized maintenance programs delivered in the community. According to the September 2005 entry in CSC's Permanent Briefing Book,

"by the end of 2006-2007, CMP will be the primary maintenance strategy in the community"

(p.2).

In 2009, CSC indicated that the NSAP - Maintenance Program in the community

"is being phased out in order to be replaced by the Community Maintenance Program"

(CSC, 2009d, p. 61).

As of March 2008, the Community Maintenance Program is

"the priority intervention in the community" and "the follow-up relapse prevention/self-management program for all CSC programs (with the exception of Sex Offender programs)"

(Memorandum, March 7, 2008, p.1 and p.3).^{Footnote 13}

In order to facilitate this priority intervention, resources that were used for the community specialized substance abuse maintenance program (i.e., NSAP - Maintenance Program) were realigned to the Community Maintenance Program as of FY 2008/09 (Memorandum, March 7, 2008, p. 1).^{Footnote 14}

Research has consistently found that the most effective programs are those that adhere to the principles of risk, need, and responsivity (e.g., Andrews et al., 1990; Andrews & Dowden, 2006; Dowden & Andrews, 2004; Hanley, 2006; Hanson et al., 2002).^{Footnote 15} Briefly, these principles state that correctional interventions should target identified criminogenic needs of offenders (need principle), tailor the intensity of interventions to match offenders' level of risk (risk principle) and be delivered in a manner that matches the learning styles, motivation, abilities, and strengths of offenders (Andrews & Bonta, 2006; Andrews et al., 1990; Bonta & Andrews, 2007). Furthermore, Andrews and Dowden (2006) found that adherence to the risk principles was effective only if the program also targeted criminogenic needs, and Dowden and Andrews (2004) found that adherence to the responsivity principle in the absence of risk and need did not improve program effectiveness. Bonta and Andrews (2007) also found that treatment effectiveness increased incrementally with adherence to each additional principle. With respect to the need principle, the specialized maintenance programs that have traditionally been in place at CSC, adheres to the need principle to a greater extent than the Community Maintenance Program as each program is designed to target a specific need rather than a more generic set of needs. If the specialized maintenance programs and the generic Community Maintenance Program are comparable with respect to the extent to which they respond to offender risk and responsivity, the specialized maintenance program model would still be expected to be more effective than the generic model due to its greater adherence to the need principle. However, only one study was found that directly compared the effectiveness of specialized and non-specialized programs.

In a study examining the relative effectiveness of a specialized sexual offender program in the community, non-specialized treatment, and no treatment, McGrath, Hoke, and Vojtisek (1998) found that the specialized program had a significantly lower rate of recidivism than the other two groups, which in turn did not differ significantly. It is important to note, however, that few of the programs that were included in the non-specialized treatment group included relapse prevention components. Although the Community Maintenance program is a generic aftercare program, its design was based on the relapse prevention and self-regulation models. As such, the Community Maintenance Program may be more effective in reducing recidivism than no treatment. Indeed, the evaluation of CSC's Correctional Programs (Nafekh et al., 2009) found a significant positive treatment effect for the Community Maintenance Program compared to a group of offenders who were assigned to, but did not participate in, the program.

1.7. Financial Expenditures

The annual program budget and expenditures for the Community Maintenance Program are presented in Table 1. The total expenditures have increased over the years since the program's inception, and in FY 2008/09 the total expenditures were approximately $1.2 million.

2. Evaluation Method

2.1. Scope of the Evaluation

The evaluation was conducted by the Evaluation Branch, CSC, to inform decision-making on the future disposition of the Community Maintenance Program. As such, it focused on continued relevancy, implementation, success, and cost-effectiveness, as well as unintended program outcomes. At the outset of the current evaluation, the following expected results were identified under each evaluation objective.^{Footnote 16}

Objective #1: Continued Relevancy

1. Community Maintenance Program activities are consistent with other correctional reintegration strategies, continue to operate under originally intended principles and guidelines, and serve the public interest.
2. There is an appropriate, legitimate, and necessary role for CSC in Effective Corrections Initiatives, specifically in the Community Maintenance Program.

Objective #2: Program Implementation

1. The Community Maintenance Program operates according to standards set out in policy.
2. The Community Maintenance Program is supported by both internal and external CSC staff, and partnerships exist and function at an optimal level.
3. There is a reduction in the time for admission to maintenance programming after release to the community.
4. There is an increase in the number of admissions to maintenance programming in the community, especially in remote regions.
5. There is a reduction in the number of cross-referrals to multiple maintenance programs in the community.
6. There is a reduction in the need for multiple maintenance programs in the community.

Objective #3: Success (Effectiveness & Efficiency)

1. There is a regular pattern of offender intervention.
2. There is a well-developed cadre of tools and resources made available to aid in the facilitation of the offender reintegration process.
3. There is high usage of the Community Maintenance Program by the specialized groups.
4. The initiative's target group demonstrates positive results.

Objective #4: Cost-effectiveness

1. Outputs and outcomes have been effectively achieved with designated funding.
2. Community Maintenance Program value-for-money analyses yield positive results.

Objective #5: Unintended Outcomes

1. Positive and/or negative unintended outcomes created by or encountered through the Community Maintenance Program have been identified.

2.2 Sample Composition

2.2.1 Study Groups for Quantitative Analyses

To examine the effectiveness of the Community Maintenance Program, data from CSC's Offender Management System (OMS) were used. The data were originally drawn for the Correctional Programs evaluation and were further limited to those offenders for whom a complete set of data (including follow-up data on recidivism) was available (N = 5,008). In addition, the Community Maintenance Program was developed specifically for male offenders, thus all of the analyses in this evaluation were conducted for male offenders.^{Footnote 17} The specialized community substance abuse maintenance program group was comprised of offenders who were assigned to participate in the NSAP - Maintenance Program. The specialized community family violence maintenance program group was comprised of offenders who were assigned to participate in the National Family Violence Maintenance Program.

Several samples of offenders - who were admitted between the years of 1997 and 2007 and who were released for the first time in relation to their current sentence - were constructed based on their assignment to one of the following types of maintenance programs in the community:^{Footnote 18}, ^{Footnote 19}

1. Community Maintenance Program (n = 1,323);
2. Specialized community substance abuse maintenance program (n = 3,414); and,
3. Specialized community family violence maintenance program (n = 308).

An intent-to-treat design was used for this evaluation. Specifically, within each program type, the sample was further divided according to the offender's program enrolment status. Specifically, offenders who participated in the program to some extent after being assigned to the program were included in the "enrolment" category, whereas offenders who were assigned to the program but did not receive any treatment were included in the "comparison group". For example, the Community Maintenance Program enrolment group consisted of all offenders who were referred to and participated in the program to varying extents while the Community Maintenance comparison group was comprised of offenders who were referred to, but did not participate in, the program (i.e., waitlisted). For comparisons between the generic and specialized community maintenance programs, the Community Maintenance Program enrolment and comparison samples were further broken down into subsamples according to whether an offender required substance abuse or family violence programming as determined by the appropriate supplementary intake assessment instrument.^{Footnote 20}, ^{Footnote 21} Detailed information for all of the group profiles (i.e., age, Aboriginal status, risk, need) is presented in Tables A2 through A5 in Appendix D.

Finally, the issue of multiple program assignments was also addressed in all analyses to ensure independence between observations, both within and between each program type. Within each program type, where an offender was assigned to a program more than once, the last assignment where the offender actually participated in the program was selected to represent the case. Between program types, where an offender was assigned to more than one program type, the offender was excluded from the analyses. Thus, in analyses that compared the Community Maintenance Program subsample with a substance abuse need and the specialized substance abuse maintenance groups, 329 offenders were excluded, and 45 offenders were excluded in the analyses that compared the Community Maintenance Program subsample with a family violence group and the specialized family violence treatment groups.

2.2.2. Automated Data

Data from CSC's automated database OMS were extracted as part of the evaluation of CSC Correctional Programs. Offenders meeting the criteria noted in Section 2.2.1 were included in the present evaluation.

The financial information and enrolment data used for the cost-effectiveness analyses were drawn from CSC's Integrated Management Reporting System (IMRS) and Corporate Reporting System (CRS), respectively.

2.2.3. Key Sources of Qualitative Data

Offender interviewees

A total of 30 offenders who participated in the Community Maintenance Program completed interviews as part of this evaluation, which represented approximately 2% of all Community Maintenance Program participants. The majority of interviewed participants were living in a private home (50%; n = 15) or halfway house/community residential facility (43%; n = 13) at the time of the interview.

Analyses were conducted to compare the interviewed program participants and all Community Maintenance Program participants in order to determine whether the interview sample was representative of the general Community Maintenance Program population. Overall, no differences were found between interviewed participants and all participants in terms of age at release and sentence length. However, Aboriginal offenders were under-represented in the interviewed sample and offenders serving indeterminate sentences were over-represented in the interviewed sample. Finally, there was no difference between the interviewed participants and all Community Maintenance Program participants with respect to the proportion of offenders serving sentences for a serious offence against the person (Schedule I), but a larger proportion of the interviewed participants were serving sentences for a serious drug offence (Schedule II), Interviewed participants had lower risk ratings and higher motivation and reintegration potential scores compared to all program participants. However, no significant differences in need levels were found between the interviewed participants and all Community Maintenance Program participants.

Staff and Contracted Service Provider Surveys

A total of 306 CSC staff members and contracted service providers completed the electronic survey,^{Footnote 22} of which 55% (n = 168) reported at least moderate familiarity with the goals and objectives of the Community Maintenance Program. As the survey was designed for staff members who had at least moderate familiarity with the Community Maintenance Program, only results from these staff members were reported. The majority of survey respondents worked in the community (52%; n = 87) and in institutions (40%; n = 66) and the remainder worked at national or regional headquarters (8%; n = 14). One-third (33%; n = 55) of survey respondents was directly involved with the delivery or management of the Community Maintenance Program. The positions of staff members who completed the survey are summarized in Table A1 in Appendix D.

2.2.4. Document Review

Documents reviewed for various components of the evaluation included:

• Departmental reports (e.g., Report on Plans and Priorities; CSC 2009c) and policy documents (i.e., CDs);
• Evaluation of CSC's Correctional Programs (Nafekh et al., 2009);
• Program Description Tables (CSC, 2004b); and,
• Published and unpublished research and evaluation literature.

2.3. Measures

2.3.1. Semi-Structured Interviews

Semi-structured interviews were created with Snap Survey software to collect information from program participants. Interviews were comprised of a combination of closed-ended and open-ended questions. Closed-ended questions were generally 5-point Likert-type scale, dichotomous (yes/no), or categorical items. Community Maintenance Program participants (past and current) were asked to volunteer to participate in face-to-face interviews with evaluation staff.

2.3.2. Electronic Surveys

Electronic surveys were created and administered online (via CSC's Infonet) using Snap Survey software. Contracted service providers who did not have access to the Infonet were asked to print an electronic copy of the survey, complete it, and return via fax to the Evaluation Branch. Survey questions were designed to address the evaluation objectives and, similar to the offender interviews, were comprised of a combination of closed-ended and open-ended questions. Closed-ended questions were generally 5-point Likert-type scale, dichotomous (yes/no), or categorical items.

2.3.3. Supplementary Intake Assessment Instruments

Offenders' programming needs are assessed to determine in which correctional program and at what intensity level they should participate. Referrals to correctional programs occur on the basis of several assessment activities and tools, including:

• an interview with the offender;
• objective tools assessing static and dynamic indicators; and,
• supplementary specialized assessments conducted at intake (e.g., supplementary intake assessments) for programs including substance abuse, family violence, violent offenders, and sexual offender programs.

For the present evaluation, Community Maintenance Program participants were compared to participants of the specialized substance abuse maintenance and family violence maintenance programs.^{Footnote 23} The following section provides a description of the supplementary intake assessment used as referral criteria for the substance abuse and family violence programs. Results on these supplementary intake assessments were used to denote substance abuse and family violence needs.

Substance Abuse

As mandated by Offender Intake Assessment and Correctional Planning, Standard Operating Practice 700-04 (CSC, 2003b, s. 34), when an offender meets one or more criteria indicating the possibility of substance abuse problems, they must be referred to complete a supplementary substance abuse intake assessment. The results of these assessments are then used to guide referrals to the appropriate intensity level of substance abuse programming. Within CSC, the Computerized Lifestyle Assessment Instrument (CLAI) and its successor, the Computerized Assessment of Substance Abuse (CASA), are used to determine offender referrals for substance abuse programming.

Computerized Lifestyle Assessment Instrument (CLAI; Robinson, Fabiano, Poporino, Millson, & Graves, 1993)

The CLAI is a computer-administered inventory with over 600 items assessing substance abuse among offenders and is comprised of several standardized screening instruments including the Alcohol Dependence Scale and the Drug Abuse Screening Test. Together, the inventory examines a variety of factors associated with substance abuse, including physical health, mental health, nutrition, family and social functioning, education/work, criminal behaviour patterns, substance abuse and its relationship to criminal activity, past substance abuse treatment, and readiness for future treatment. The CLAI can be administered in both French and English (Weekes, Vanderburg, & Millson, 1995), has been used with Aboriginal offenders (Vanderburg, Weekes & Millson, 1994), and key components have been tested on women offenders (Lightfoot & Hodgins, 1988). Weekes and colleagues (1995) reported high internal consistency for the Alcohol Dependence Scale and the Drug Abuse Screening Test for Anglophone (α = .96 and .88, respectively) and Francophone offenders (α = .94 and .87, respectively). Validity studies have demonstrated strong criterion validity for CLAI (e.g., Beal, Weekes, Millson, & Eno, 1997; Robinson & Millson, 1991; Weekes, Moser & Langevin, 1997).

Computerized Assessment of Substance Abuse (CASA)

Following consultations with operational staff members and members of an international accreditation panel, the Reintegration Programs Branch developed a new assessment system to replace the CLAI. In 1999, the CASA was developed, field tested, and refined by the Addictions Research Centre. The CASA is a 288-item, bilingual, audio-enhanced instrument that is a compilation of a number of standardized instruments used to assess substance abuse severity, including the Alcohol Dependence Scale (Skinner & Horn, 1984), Problems Related to Drinking Scale, and the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (Selzer, 1971). Together, the CASA assesses substance abuse in seven domains: alcohol abuse severity; drug abuse severity; patterns of use; link to criminal behaviour; parental substance abuse; previous program participation; and treatment readiness. Research suggests that the CASA accurately differentiates cases for referral to substance abuse programs (Kunic & Grant, 2006). Specifically, offenders with higher substance abuse severity as measured by the CASA had more criminogenic needs and higher static risk scores, and higher scores on the SIR-R1, which is an actuarial risk assessment tool. With respect to the reliability of the CASA, although the internal consistency of the standardized instruments that comprise the CASA were high (ranging from .81 to .95; refer to Kunic & Grant), the alpha level for the composite assessment tool was not reported. Due to the time period covered in the present evaluation, scores from either the CLAI or the CASA were used as a measure of need for substance abuse programming.

Family Violence

Spousal Assault Risk Assessment (SARA; Kropp, Hart, Webster & Eaves, 1995):

When screening criteria on a Family Violence Risk Assessment (FVRA) are met, the Spousal Assault Risk Assessment (SARA) is then completed. Results of this assessment are used to determine whether the offender's level of risk for family violence is low, moderate, or high. Kropp and Hart (2000) found that the SARA had moderate internal consistency (alpha values ranged from .62 to .83) and high inter-rater reliability (r of .65 using a 3-point scale) among a sample of adult male offenders. With respect to criterion validity, Kropp and Hart found that offenders with a history of spousal assault had significantly higher scores on the SARA than those without. Furthermore, scores on the SARA significantly differentiated between recidivists and nonrecidivists. The SARA has been found to be useful in guiding parole officers in making recommendations regarding family violence programming, private family visits, and for release considerations (Gitzel, 1997). Offenders classified as low risk on the SARA are referred to a family violence awareness program, whereas offenders assessed as moderate or high risk are referred to moderate or high intensity family violence treatment programs, respectively (for specific referral criteria, refer to CSC, 2009b).

2.3.4. Program Completion and Readmission

In order to address the effectiveness of the Community Maintenance Program, the evaluation examined program completion and dropout rates, and readmission. Readmission was defined as the first readmission to custody. Two measures of readmission were examined, namely any return to custody and return for a new offence. Any return to custody refers to returns as a result of a technical violation^{Footnote 24} or a new offence. Returns for a new offence included:

1. violation of terms of conditional release with an offence;
2. revocation with an offence;
3. revocation with an outstanding charge;
4. new conviction that resulted in a provincial sentence; and
5. new conviction that resulted in a federal sentence.

Note that offenders were followed to their first incident of readmission. If an offender was revoked, re-released, and was subsequently readmitted for a new offence during or following that specific sentence, the new offence would not be captured utilizing this data gathering method.

2.3.5. Effectiveness

Multiple analyses were conducted to examine the effectiveness of the Community Maintenance Program in reducing first readmission, which was disaggregated into technical revocations without an offence and new offence (as defined in section 2.3.4). First, the Community Maintenance Program enrolment group was compared to the Community Maintenance Program comparison group to examine whether participants in the Community Maintenance Program were less likely to be readmitted than program non-participants (Analysis A). Second, the effectiveness of the community substance abuse maintenance program was assessed by comparing the substance abuse enrolment group with the substance abuse comparison group (those who were assigned to, but did not participate in, community substance abuse maintenance programs; Analysis B). Next, analyses were conducted to examine the relative effectiveness of the Community Maintenance Program and specialized substance abuse programs in reducing readmission for offenders with an identified substance abuse need (Analysis C). The second and third analyses were also completed for the Community Maintenance Program and the comparison group of offenders with identified family violence needs (Analyses D and E).

2.3.6. Cost-Effectiveness

Financial data were obtained from CSC's IMRS. Program enrolment and completion rates for fiscal years 2007/08 and 2008/09 were obtained from CRS. The cost of delivery (cost per participant enrolment) and cost-efficiency (cost per completion) were calculated for the Community Maintenance Program and compared to the specialized community substance abuse maintenance program to examine the relative costs associated with each of the programs.^{Footnote 25}

2.4. Procedures

2.4.1. Interviews

Interviews were conducted by the evaluation team in person during the month of March 2009. The interview process included site visits across all regions. Interviews were approximately 25 to 40 minutes in duration.

Interview data were entered into Snap Survey software and exported into the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Qualitative data generated as a result of the interview process were exported into Microsoft Word. Themes relevant to the evaluation objectives were then developed by evaluation analysts. Quantitative interview data were analyzed in SPSS.

Summary data from quantitative and qualitative interview questions are provided in the text related to the relevant findings. All interview results are presented as a percentage of the valid responses to the question, as some questions were not applicable, or interviewees were unable to answer some questions.

2.4.2. Operational Data

Data from the Offender Management System originally drawn from OMS for the Correctional Programs evaluation were used in the sections that examined offenders who were assigned to maintenance programs with respect to their demographic profile, program enrolment rates, and recidivism outcomes.

For recidivism outcomes, offenders were followed to their first incident of readmission, and both OMS and Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) data were used to collect recidivism data. OMS data were used to record technical revocations of conditional release for the period of time between an offender's conditional release and their warrant expiry date. Where the follow-up period extended past an offender's warrant expiry date, CPIC data were used. For each offender, his/her CPIC criminal record was extracted using CSC's CPIC terminal as a text file. The criminal records were then coded automatically using a SAS program, which parsed the data using character functions, and created a structured data file.

2.5. Analyses

Quantitative methods were used to profile the Community Maintenance Program participants, to identify trends and to compare demographic, criminal history, and other correctional variables (e.g., risk and need levels) with a group of offenders who participated in specialized maintenance programs as well as an untreated comparison group of offenders. Between-group differences on continuous variables were identified using one-way analyses of variance (ANOVA) with post hoc tests.^{Footnote 26} Contrasts on categorical variables were performed using logistic regression.^{Footnote 27} Where a profile variable had two levels, direct logistic regression^{Footnote 28} was used. Where a profile variable had three levels, multinomial logistic regression with ordered categories^{Footnote 29} was used. In addition, for categorical variables, differences between groups were expressed using the odds-ratio effect size. In most cases, the effect size, rather than the test for statistical significance, was more informative because the sample sizes were large. The odds-ratio can be understood as "the times more likely a member of a treatment group is to have the profile characteristic". Tables that concern a categorical profile variable that has more than two levels used the cumulative logit coefficient.^{Footnote 30}

The outcome analyses were performed using Proportional Hazards Regression, or Cox Regression.^{Footnote 31} Like all forms of survival analysis, Cox regression enables the analysis of censored data (i.e., data where the follow-up time varies between cases). In addition, Cox regression makes it possible to model the effects of covariates in addition to treatment effects. The main effect size associated with Cox regression is the Hazard Ratio.^{Footnote 32} Similar to the odds-ratio, the hazard ratio can be interpreted as the "times more likely a member of the treatment group is to fail, at any point in the follow-up period".

Potential differences among some important variables between comparison groups were controlled in all outcome analyses. These variables included age at release, overall static risk level, and overall need ratings from the Offender Intake Assessment.^{Footnote 33} All group comparisons and tests of hypotheses were conducted at the .05 significance level.

2.6. Limitations

The evaluation team experienced difficulty recruiting Community Maintenance Program participants to volunteer to be interviewed about the program, despite flexibility in scheduling interviews. The total number of offenders interviewed was 30 across the regions. Anecdotally, staff members who coordinated the site visits frequently reported lack of incentive to participate as a factor that contributed to the low participation rate. As a result, caution is required in interpreting the results from the interviews, as views expressed by the offenders who agreed to participate in interviews may not be representative of all Community Maintenance Program participants. As discussed previously, interviewed participants tended to be of lower risk and had higher ratings on motivation and reintegration potential compared to all program participants.^{Footnote 34} Furthermore, it was not possible to obtain feedback from participants who did not complete the Community Maintenance Program due to time constraints and access to participants. As such, it was not possible to obtain direct accounts of factors that impacted program non-completion.

The data analyzed in the present evaluation were originally extracted for the evaluation of Correctional Programs (Nafekh et al., 2009) and included offenders who were admitted to CSC between the years 1997 and 2007. This sample was further reduced to those offenders who were referred to the Community Maintenance Program, specialized substance abuse maintenance programs, or specialized family violence maintenance programs for whom there were follow-up data. However, enrolment and completion data were also drawn from CRS for fiscal years 2007/08 and 2008/09 in order to supplement the data presented in the sections related to offender enrolment and cost-effectiveness.

The present evaluation assessed the effectiveness of the Community Maintenance Program on reducing readmission by comparing a group of offenders who participated in the Community Maintenance Program to offenders who were assigned to, but did not participate in, the Community Maintenance Program. Additional analyses were completed to examine the relative effectiveness of the Community Maintenance Program and specialized community substance abuse and family violence maintenance programs in reducing readmission for offenders with needs in the areas of substance abuse and family violence, respectively. It was not possible to examine the relative effectiveness of the Community Maintenance Program compared to community violence prevention maintenance as no such program exists (Manager, Community Maintenance Program and Violence Prevention Program, personal communication, November 9, 2009). Offenders who complete the moderate or high intensity Violence Prevention Program are offered Violence Prevention Program Maintenance in the institution and the Community Maintenance Program in the community (CSC, 2009d). Furthermore, comparisons were not conducted for those offender groups which were not originally targeted by the Community Maintenance Program pilot, for example, sexual offenders.^{Footnote 35}

Cost-effectiveness and cost-efficiency were examined by comparing cost per enrolment and cost per completion for the Community Maintenance Program and community substance abuse maintenance. At the time of the evaluation, there were significant inconsistencies in the financial, program enrolment, and program completion data available for community family violence maintenance which precluded analyses to compare the costs of the Community Maintenance Program and specialized family violence maintenance programs. Similarly, cost-efficiency analyses could not be completed for offenders who were referred to the Community Maintenance Program to address multiple needs (e.g., substance abuse and family violence).

3. Key Findings

The following results are presented under their respective Evaluation Objectives, namely:

1. Continued Relevancy
2. Implementation
3. Success (effectiveness and efficiency)
4. Cost Effectiveness
5. Unintended Outcomes

Objective 1: Continued Relevancy

FINDING 1: The Community Maintenance Program is consistent with government and departmental priorities.

Government-wide Priorities

Canadian federal departments' Strategic Outcomes and Program Activities are grouped into 13 long-term benefits to Canadians in three broad sectors (social, economic, and international) that are referred to as Government of Canada Outcomes.^{Footnote 36} CSC contributes to the Social Affairs sector, under the Government of Canada Outcome, Safe and Secure Communities. CSC's program activities of Custody, Correctional Interventions, Community Supervision, CORCAN, and Internal Servicesand the plans associated with them, support CSC's single strategic outcome that

"the custody, correctional interventions, and supervision of offenders, in communities and institutions, contributes to public safety"

(CSC, 2009c).

The Effective Corrections Initiative falls under the program activities of Correctional Interventions and Community Supervision. The Correctional Interventions Program Activity encompasses all activities related to the delivery of correctional interventions and programs in institutions and communities designed to successfully reintegrate offenders into society as law-abiding citizens (CSC, 2009c). The Community Supervision Program Activity encompasses all activities related to

"the safe and humane supervision of eligible offenders in the community"

(p. 28).

Addressing offenders' individualized risk and needs in order to reduce violent re-offending is a part of CSC's program activity of Correctional Interventions. Part of this particular plan is to promote the Community Maintenance Program as an aftercare strategy for offenders who have participated in institutional violence prevention and substance abuse programming.

CSC Departmental Performance Report

The Community Maintenance Program is directly related to one of the five strategic priorities identified in the 2007-2008 Departmental Performance Report (CSC, 2008a), namely,

"safe transition of eligible offenders into the community"

(p. 11).

At CSC, the development of correctional programming has been guided by a growing awareness of the need for aftercare in order to help ensure that offenders are able to maintain skills gained through institutional treatment programs upon their release into the community (CSC, 2003a; Yazar, 2003).

The Community Maintenance Program, a generic program which serves as aftercare to most reintegration programs provided by CSC thus aims to ensure the continuity of care to offenders in the community in order to maximize treatment outcome through increased access to maintenance programs. It is also available to diverse offender populations and targets a variety of offender needs, while addressing several obstacles to the provision of correctional treatment programs in the community. For instance, in a review of studies in the United States, Wodahl (2006) noted that the challenges faced by offenders upon release from the institution to rural communities include limited employment opportunities, affordable housing, and lack of resources in the community which offenders can access. With a goal of increasing admissions to maintenance programming in remote regions, the Community Maintenance Program aims to alleviate such challenges.

CSC Review Panel

The Correctional Service Canada Review Panel (2007) noted that the Community Maintenance Program is an important initiative being undertaken by CSC. According to the Panel, the Community Maintenance Program's

"continuous admission and risk-based intensity level is customized to the ever-changing needs and challenges that offenders face in the community"

(p. 130). The Panel recommended:

...that CSC review its community program base and the resources required to support the implementation of maintenance programming. Particular attention should be given to the development and availability of community programs for women and Aboriginal offenders.

(CSC Review Panel, 2007, p. 137)

Finally, the majority of CSC staff members and service providers surveyed indicated that the goals and objectives of the Community Maintenance Program were consistent with CSC's mission and strategic priorities (95%; n -= 143). Only 5% (n = 8) indicated otherwise and most of these individuals indicated that the program was not sufficiently flexible (63%; n = 5). Further, since admission to the Community Maintenance Program is possible at any time, the program is expected to serve as an effective risk management tool where it can be used to maintain offenders in the community as an alternative to suspension in cases where risk is elevated. It therefore supports the principle of the CCRA to use the least restrictive measures to manage risk.

Objective 2: Implementation

FINDING 2: CSC staff members and service providers indicated that the Community Maintenance Program adhered to Correctional Program policy standards.

The Correctional Program policy standards are outlined in CD 726: Correctional Programs (CSC, 2003a; refer to Appendix A for further information). Formal accreditation of the Community Maintenance Program is not required as it is an aftercare program to supplement correctional programs. However, according to CSC's Reintegration Programs Division (CSC, 2009d), the Community Maintenance Program was endorsed by an international accreditation panel in 2005 as "meeting the requirements as an appropriate and effective follow-up". During the present evaluation, however, no report was produced on the accreditation panel's review of the Community Maintenance Program.

The majority of CSC staff members and contracted service providers agreed that the Community Maintenance Program was based on theory and supporting research (82%; n = 129), targeted criminogenic factors (85%; n = 135), and addressed diverse offender needs (71%; n = 115). Furthermore, more than three-quarters of CSC staff members and contracted service providers agreed that the Community Maintenance Program accounted for offender risk (79%; n = 124) and need (76%; n = 121). However, just over one-half of respondents (56%; n = 88) agreed that responsivity factors were considered in the program.

FINDING 3: CSC staff members, service providers and program participants indicated that a variety of communication tools were used by Community Maintenance Program staff members to support case management practices in the community.

All of the interviewed Community Maintenance Program participants indicated that their community parole officers and program instructors worked together to ensure that the offenders' program needs were met (100%; n = 27). According to CSC staff members and contracted service providers, various communication tools were important in facilitating communication between Community Maintenance Program staff and community parole officers. Specifically, the majority of surveyed CSC staff members and service providers indicated that program final reports (82%; n = 126), case conferences (81%; n = 125) and casework records (69%; n = 105) were very important. Respondents' ratings of the importance of program intake records and interim reports varied; nonetheless, approximately two-thirds rated these two communication tools as moderately or very important (64%; n = 89 and 68%, n = 99; respectively).

Timely access to information by community parole officers was another topic of interest. The majority of CSC staff members and service providers agreed that community parole officers received timely information through case conferences (83%; n = 96), final reports (80%; n = 94) and casework records (79%; n = 91). A somewhat lower proportion of respondents agreed that the interim reports (67%; n = 70) and intake records (57%; n = 57) were transmitted in a timely fashion. The importance of these communication tools may have contributed to their timely transmission, as respondents generally indicated that these latter two communication tools were not as important as the others. When probed further regarding other potential means of fostering community contact, respondents suggested face-to-face contacts, informal and continuous discussions outside of case conferences (45%; n = 9) and the use of technology-based communication (35%; n = 7).

FINDING 4: CSC staff members and service providers indicated that the Community Maintenance Program resulted in reduced need for multiple maintenance programs. Interviewed program participants concluded that the Community Maintenance Program met their needs.

Two of the challenges of providing maintenance programs were the need for multiple offence-specific maintenance programs and the ability of programs to meet the multitude of offender needs. The generic nature of the Community Maintenance Program was intended to overcome these challenges. Overall, the majority of CSC staff members and contracted service providers surveyed agreed that the Community Maintenance Program resulted in a reduced need for, and number of referrals to, multiple maintenance programs in the community (65%, n = 80; and 77%, n = 87, respectively), while still meeting multiple offender reintegration needs. The majority of staff members and contracted service providers surveyed (63% to 92%) agreed that the Community Maintenance Program was responsive to substance abuse, attitude, personal/emotional, community functioning, and marital/family needs of offenders (refer to Figure 1).

Figure 1 : Extent to which Survey Respondents Agreed that the Community Maintenance Program was Responsive to Offenders with the Following Needs

Source: CSC staff and service provider surveys.

In addition, the majority of interviewed participants agreed that the program met their program needs (86%; n = 25) and helped them to address the problems that had led to their offences (79%; n = 22). Specifically, the Community Maintenance Program was designed to focus on six core skills, including working toward goals, problem-solving, dealing with emotions, challenging high-risk thinking, interpersonal communication, and self-management. The majority of interviewed participants indicated that these core skills were learned through institutional programs (from 88% to 100%) and reviewed in the community through the Community Maintenance Program (from 88% to 100%).

Overall, the interviewed participants reported positive responses to the program. The majority of interviewed participants (97%; n = 29) indicated that the information delivered in the Community Maintenance Program was easy to understand. Of note, the interviewed participants were unanimous (100%; n = 30) in stating that the goals of each of the program sessions were clear and meaningful. Several offenders further commented that effective facilitators (23%; n = 7) and the logical and clear progression of course material (23%; n = 7) were keys to success. Nearly all program participants (97%; n = 28) indicated they would recommend the services they received from the Community Maintenance Program to other offenders with similar needs. Several offenders further provided comments on the value of the program, namely that it helped with reintegration (23%; n = 7), and served as a refresher of lessons learned in the institutions (17%; n = 5).

FINDING 5: Although CSC staff members and service providers indicated that the Community Maintenance Program eligibility criteria and referral process were clear, a substantial proportion of respondents noted that there was a need to examine or modify the eligibility criteria.

In order to be eligible to participate in the Community Maintenance Program, offenders are required to have completed any correctional program (CSC, 2009d). The majority of CSC staff members and contracted service providers indicated that the eligibility criteria for the Community Maintenance Program and referral process were clear (72%, n = 105; and 78%, n = 115, respectively). Similarly, just over one-half of respondents indicated that the program targeted the appropriate groups of offenders (57%; n = 84).

However, 43% (n = 58) also indicated that there was a need to examine or modify the eligibility criteria. Of those who indicated that there was a need to examine or modify the eligibility criteria, respondents most frequently reported that CMP eligibility criteria, or the CMP program in general, was too generic (33%; n = 19), making it difficult to target offenders' specific needs. Conversely, some respondents appeared to suggest that the referral criteria should be even broader, commenting that offenders who did not complete a correctional program should not be excluded (14%; n = 8), or that offenders who completed non-CSC or non-accredited programs should be admitted to the Community Maintenance Program (7%; n = 5). However, the Community Maintenance Program was designed to reinforce the skills that were acquired through correctional programs rather than to teach new skills. As such, offenders who have not completed any correctional programs may not have the foundation necessary to understand the program content or derive potential benefit from the aftercare program.

The majority (70%; n = 10) of staff members and contracted service providers surveyed indicated that the Community Maintenance Program was responsive to offenders with a history of violence, although only 35% (n = 51) indicated that the program was responsive to offenders with a history of sexual offending. In fact, half of the respondents (n = 73) disagreed with the latter. This may not be surprising, given that completion of a violence prevention program was one of the original eligibility criteria for admission into the Community Maintenance Program while completion of sexual offender programming was not.^{Footnote 37}

Objective 3: Success

FINDING 6: Although one of the goals of the Community Maintenance Program was to increase admissions to maintenance programs in the community, a higher proportion of referred offenders participated in specialized community substance and family violence maintenance programs compared to the Community Maintenance Program. However, basic enrolment in the Community Maintenance Program increased while enrolment in specialized substance abuse maintenance programs decreased from 2007/08 to 2008/09.

To examine the issue of access to maintenance programming, enrolment patterns were compared between the generic Community Maintenance Program and specialized maintenance programs in given target domains (e.g., substance abuse, violent behaviour, etc.). Due to a small number of participants in specialized maintenance programs, only substance abuse and family violence programs were included in the comparative analyses discussed in the respective sections below. All analyses were limited to the male population, as no women received services through the Community Maintenance Program. Furthermore, offenders referred to both the generic and specialized maintenance programs were excluded from comparative statistical tests. Finally, as acknowledged in Section 2.2, the dataset used in this evaluation only included those individuals for whom complete follow-up data were available.

Enrolment as a Function of Referrals

During the period covered by the evaluation (i.e., admissions from 1997 to 2007; refer to section 2.2.1 for a description of offenders included in the analyses), 1,072 offenders with an identified substance abuse need were referred to the Community Maintenance Program and 3,414 offenders were referred to specialized community substance abuse maintenance programs. Over one-third (41%; n = 440) of those referred to the Community Maintenance Program ultimately enrolled, compared to the 64.3% (n = 2,196) enrolment rate for offenders referred to specialized community substance abuse maintenance programs. This difference in enrolment between the Community Maintenance Program and community substance abuse maintenance program was statistically significant (χ²(1, N = 3,438) = 153.33, p < .0001).^{Footnote 38}

With respect to community family violence maintenance programs, 308 male offenders were referred to a specialized family violence maintenance program, of which 151 (49%) individuals ultimately enrolled. In comparison, a total of 253 offenders requiring family violence intervention were referred to the Community Maintenance Program and 98 (38.7%) of those enrolled. Overall, the difference observed in the enrolment levels between the generic community maintenance and specialized community family violence maintenance programs reached a statistically significant level (χ²(1, N = 386) = 4.02, p < .05).^{Footnote 39} It is important to note that these sample sizes were substantially smaller than those for substance abuse maintenance. This may highlight one of the challenges of delivering multiple maintenance programs in the community (and one of the factors that the Community Maintenance Program was designed to address), namely, insufficient number of offenders to warrant program delivery.

It was also of interest to compare participation rates of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal offenders in these maintenance programs. Among offenders who were referred to the Community Maintenance Program who had a substance abuse treatment need, non-Aboriginal offenders were significantly more likely to enrol in the Community Maintenance Program than Aboriginal offenders (43.2% vs. 34.4%, respectively; χ²(1, N = 1,072) = 6.42, p < .05). Similarly, a significantly higher proportion of non-Aboriginal offenders who were referred to specialized substance abuse maintenance programs enrolled in the program compared to Aboriginal offenders (66.0% vs. 59.2%, respectively; χ²(1, N = 3,414) = 12.69, p < .001).

Similar results were observed for offenders with a need for family violence treatment. Specifically, Aboriginal offenders requiring family violence intervention were less likely than non-Aboriginal offenders to enrol in the Community Maintenance Program (29.6% and 43.6%, respectively; χ²(1, N = 253) = 4.80, p <.05). The same held true for specialized community family violence maintenance programs (27.8% and 53.5%, respectively; χ²(1, N = 308) = 11.83, p <.001; Refer to Appendix E for details). The reason for the lower participation rate by Aboriginal participants is not clear. However, a few comments were raised by CSC staff members and service providers suggesting that the Community Maintenance Program did not include culturally-sensitive components, where appropriate (n = 7). Nonetheless, the Community Maintenance Program was associated with significant reduction in readmission for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal offenders compared to their counterparts who were referred to, but did not participate in, the Community Maintenance Program (see Finding 9).

It is necessary to discuss two important issues related to program enrolment to provide context for these findings. The first issue is that of program availability. The Community Maintenance Program was implemented nationally in 2003/04 and therefore, may not have been available in as many sites as the specialized maintenance programs (Project Officer, Community Maintenance Program, personal communication, December 21, 2009). The second issue is program enrolment over the last two years, which has changed drastically since the 2007 cut-off date for the data extraction for this evaluation. In order to supplement enrolment data beyond this cut-off date, enrolment numbers were drawn from CRS and are shown in the following section.

Enrolment Data to 2008/09

The number of participants enrolled in the Community Maintenance Program increased steadily across the first four years of program implementation. Over the same period, program expenditures also increased steadily from $60,900 in FY 2004/05 to $600,429 in FY 2007/08. Moreover, from 2007/08 to 2008/09, there was a 135% increase in the number of participants enrolled in the Community Maintenance Program (from 460 to 1,081 participants). At the same time, enrolment in the specialized substance abuse maintenance program decreased by 64% (from 903 to 322 participants). Figure 2 summarizes the number of offenders enrolled in the Community Maintenance Program and specialized community substance abuse maintenance program (i.e., NSAP - Maintenance) from 2003/04 to 2008/09.

Figure 2. Program Enrolment across Time

Notes: CMP = Community Maintenance Program; SAMP - Substance Abuse Maintenance Program. There were concerns regarding the accuracy of the data for specialized community family violence programs for 2007/08 and 2008/09. As such, enrolment data for this program are not included here.
Source: CRS

A number of factors may have contributed to these changes. For instance, the Community Maintenance Program was identified as

"the priority intervention in the community"

(Director, Reintegration Programs, Memorandum, March 7, 2008, p. 1) for offenders who completed institutional violence and substance abuse programs. In addition, CSC commenced realignment of NSAP - Maintenance resources to the Community Maintenance Program beginning in fiscal year 2007/08 in an effort to prioritize Community Maintenance Program interventions in the community (Director, Reintegration Programs, Memorandum, March 7, 2008). Furthermore, according to recent program descriptions, the NSAP - Maintenance program in the community "is being phased out in order to be replaced by the Community Maintenance Program" (Reintegration Programs, 2009d, p. 61). Thus, increase in enrolment in the Community Maintenance Program may be an artefact of increased availability of the Community Maintenance Program and decreased availability of specialized substance abuse maintenance programs in the community.

Time from Institutional Release to Admission into Maintenance Program

One of the goals of the Community Maintenance Program is to reduce the time between offenders' release from institutions to admission into maintenance programming. There was no significant difference between the Community Maintenance Program and specialized community substance abuse maintenance program and family violence maintenance program groups with respect to number of days between release from the institution and admission into the maintenance programs (refer to Table 2).

Stakeholders' Perceptions Regarding Enrolment

Issues related to access to, and enrolment in, the Community Maintenance Program were also reflected in CSC staff members and service providers' survey responses. For example, more than half (57.4%; n = 74) of respondents noted they were aware of offenders who did not receive maintenance services through the Community Maintenance Program, despite being eligible for these. Among the major reasons for not having received services, respondents identified limited program availability in the community (64.7%; n = 44), lengthy waitlists for services (57.8%; n = 37) and/or offender refusal to participate in the program (56.5%; n = 35). The timeliness with which offenders were identified for services (42%; n = 25) and the availability of appropriate alternative programs (39%; n = 24) were also reported by substantial portions of respondents as barriers to enrolment.

Furthermore, the majority (63.5%; n = 80) of staff members and service providers considered that multiple specialized maintenance programs would better meet the needs of offenders. Several respondents further elaborated on their choice of answer, noting that specialized programs would be particularly beneficial for higher risk offenders (n = 33), while another 19 respondents underscored that the generic nature of the program did not allow for offender needs to be fully addressed.

CSC staff members and contracted service providers had mixed responses regarding the accessibility of the Community Maintenance Program. While 63% (n = 82) of CSC staff members and contracted service providers agreed that the Community Maintenance Program contributed to an overall increase in accessibility to maintenance programming in the community, nearly two-thirds of survey respondents (65%; n = 44), as noted above, indicated that the program was not available in the community to which the offender was released as a reason for those offenders not having received these services.

It was difficult to corroborate these survey results with participant interviews as the majority (83%; n = 25) indicated that they were able to access the maintenance programs they required and only one person (3%) indicated access as an issue. Furthermore, none of the 30 offenders reported that the Community Maintenance Program was unavailable in their area. Three interviewed participants (10%) reported they encountered transportation difficulties in getting to the program location. Although two of them indicated that these issues had been resolved. It is worth pointing out, however, that these results may likely have been artefacts of the interviewed sample and may, therefore, not have been sufficiently representative of the program population. As highlighted in the Limitation section, only offenders who participated in the program were interviewed. Furthermore, site visits were not made to remote locations.

FINDING 7: One of the goals of the Community Maintenance Program was to increase access to maintenance programming in remote locations. While offenders supervised in remote locations were more likely than offenders supervised in urban locations to enrol in the Community Maintenance Program following referral, the program's enrolment levels were lower than those of specialized maintenance programs in remote and urban community locations.

To better understand whether the goal of the Community Maintenance Program to facilitate program delivery in remote locations was being achieved, two sets of analyses were performed. The first focused on comparing enrolment levels between urban and remote locations within the Community Maintenance Program. The second set of analyses examined the differences in enrolment levels across specialized and generic maintenance programs, by treatment need domain and location type. In the latter approach, individuals referred to both specialized and generic maintenance programs were excluded from the statistical calculation, as well as offenders who did not require substance abuse or family violence programs according to results on the secondary assessment tools.

Community Maintenance Program Enrolment Rates by Location

Overall, approximately one-half (47.7%; n = 152) of offenders referred to the Community Maintenance Program and supervised in remote locations subsequently enrolled in the program. At the same time, the program's enrolment in urban locations was significantly lower at a rate of 38.3% (n = 368; χ²(1, N = 1,279) = 8.6, p < .01). This pattern of results was similar (48.1% enrolment in remote and 39.1% in urban locations) and statistically significant when the analysis was repeated for offenders with substance abuse needs who were referred to the Community Maintenance Program (χ²(1, N = 1,038) = 6.7, p < .01). With respect to offenders with identified needs for family violence treatment, there was no significant difference in enrolment levels between remote (42.4%) and urban (38.2%) locations (χ²(1, N = 245) = 0.3, p =.56, ns).

Enrolment Rates by Location for the Community Maintenance Program vs. Specialized Maintenance Programs

The second set of analyses was performed to determine whether enrolment patterns were consistent between the Community Maintenance Program and specialized maintenance programs in the community for the cohorts of offenders with substance abuse needs and offenders with family violence needs.

As seen in Table 3, enrolment levels in the specialized community substance abuse maintenance program did not differ by remote or urban location, yet were significantly higher than enrolment in the Community Maintenance Program.

Enrolment rates for offenders with a family violence treatment need were also examined. No statistically significant difference in enrolment between the Community Maintenance Program and specialized family violence maintenance program was observed in either remote or urban location in our samples (χ²(1, N = 162) = 3.03, p=.08, ns; Table 4).

CSC staff members and service providers also commented upon the accessibility of maintenance programming for offenders. Of note, approximately half of respondents indicated that accessibility of maintenance programming in remote locations and the accessibility of aftercare for offenders residing in remote locations did not improve as a result of the Community Maintenance Program (53.3%, n = 56 and 51%, n = 49, respectively).

FINDING 8: The completion rate for the Community Maintenance Program was lower than completion rates for specialized community maintenance programs.

CRS completion data available for fiscal years 2007/08 and 2008/09 indicated that 49% (n = 752/1,535) of offenders enrolled in the Community Maintenance Program and 60.2% (n = 732/1,215) of offenders enrolled in specialized community substance abuse maintenance programs had successfully completed their respective programs.^{Footnote 40}

The dataset used for the present evaluation,^{Footnote 41} drawing data directly from OMS up to 2007, revealed similar patterns with respect to program completion. Please refer to Figure 3 for details on program completion and dropout rates, as well as the proportion of population management cases (i.e., when an offender was transferred, released, temporarily reassigned or paroled; a program was cancelled; when Warrant Expiry Date was reached; or when an assignment was transferred).

Figure 3. Completion Rates for Maintenance Programs in the Community (1997-2007)

Notes: CMP - Community Maintenance Program; SAMP - Substance Abuse Maintenance Program; FVMP - Family Violence Maintenance Program. The data are comprised of offenders admitted between 1997 and 2007 for whom complete follow-up data were available.
Source: OMS.

The difference in completion rates for Community Maintenance Program participants with a substance abuse need and specialized community substance abuse maintenance program participants was statistically significant (χ²(1, N = 2,073) = 20.09, p < .0001). With respect to community family violence programs, while a higher proportion of offenders completed the specialized family violence maintenance program compared to the Community Maintenance Program (65.6% vs. 43.4%), this difference did not reach statistical significance (χ²(1, N = 164) = 2.60, p = .107, ns).^{Footnote 42}

Furthermore, considering that the sample of Community Maintenance Program participants differed from the sample of specialized community substance abuse maintenance program participants on risk and need indicators,^{Footnote 43} additional analyses were performed to take into account these differences. Once statistical controls for risk and need were introduced, the difference in completion rates between the specialized community substance abuse program and the Community Maintenance Program remained significant (p < .0001). Program participants in the specialized community substance abuse maintenance program were 1.65 times more likely to complete the program than offenders participating in the generic Community Maintenance Program (please refer to Table 5). It is worth mentioning that, in this statistical model, offenders' risk levels were not a significant contributing factor to program non-completion, unlike offenders' need levels.

Given that no differences on risk and need ratings were observed between offenders in the Community Maintenance Program and specialized community family violence maintenance programs and considering small sample sizes, additional analyses were not repeated for community family violence maintenance programs.

Following the analysis of program completion for both the generic and specialized community maintenance programs, a profile of Community Maintenance Program dropouts and completers was constructed. Several important offender characteristics were examined between Community Maintenance Program dropouts (n = 251)^{Footnote 44} and completers (n = 231), such as age at release, Aboriginal status, risk and need levels, and requirements for substance abuse and family violence treatment. Overall, no differences were found between these two offender groups in terms of age at release, Aboriginal status and requirement for family violence treatment. Nonetheless, a greater proportion of offenders with higher risk and need levels and a requirement for substance abuse treatment tended to dropout from the Community Maintenance Program than offenders with lower risk and need levels and no substance abuse need (detailed analyses are provided in Appendix E).

In the context of program completion, it is important to discuss relative program length. Participants in the community National Family Violence Maintenance Program attend at least three sessions and additional sessions as necessary in light of risk and need (CSC, 2009d). The length of the NSAP - Maintenance varies in accordance with offender risk and need and each session is 2 hours in duration (CSC, 2009d). The Community Maintenance Program was originally implemented as 12 weekly 2-hour sessions (Yazar, 2003) and offenders can start and terminate at any point and repeat the sessions as necessary in accordance with their needs. According to recent program descriptions, the program length is 12 hours (each group session is two hours in duration; CSC, 2009d).

It is possible that the length of these programs may have impacted upon program completion rates (i.e., offenders might be more likely to complete shorter programs). However, as the duration of the maintenance programs assessed in this study could vary according to offender risk and needs, it was not possible to control for program length in the analyses for program completion. Furthermore, because program duration is dependent on offender needs, program completion in itself would appear to be the most important factor to assess.

FINDING 9: For both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal offenders, Community Maintenance Program participants were less likely than non-participants to return to custody or commit a new offence.

FINDING 10: For non-Aboriginal offenders, Community Maintenance Program participants were more likely to return to custody than specialized maintenance program participants but there was no significant difference in first readmission returns for new offences. Aboriginal offender sample sizes were relatively small, and in some cases impacted upon the ability to conduct further analyses.

The Community Maintenance Program and specialized community maintenance program enrolment groups (i.e., offenders who were referred to, and participated in, these programs), and comparison groups (i.e., offenders who were assigned to, but did not participate in, these programs) differed on a number of demographic, criminal history, and other correctional variables, some of which were found to be related to recidivism. As such, it was necessary to control for these pre-existing group differences in all outcome analyses. Sequential Cox Regression analyses were conducted controlling for age at release,^{Footnote 45} risk level, and need level.

In order to ascertain the effectiveness of the Community Maintenance Program and specialized community substance abuse and family violence programs, the evaluation examined two measures of readmission, namely any return to custody and return for a new offence. Any return to custody refers to returns for technical revocations or new offences. Returns for a new offence included offenders whose first return to custody was a result of a conviction for a new offence, violation of conditional release with an offence, revocation with an offence, or revocation with an outstanding charge. A consideration that should be taken into account in the interpretation of the finding is that the model examined the first incident of readmission. In other words, if an offender returned to custody for a technical revocation on a conditional release, he or she was excluded from the analyses pertaining to new re-offending. Thus, any offences that he or she may have committed on the same sentence following his or her technical revocation or following his or her warrant expiry date, would not have been captured using this data extraction method.^{Footnote 46}

Overall, analyses revealed that both the Community Maintenance Program and the specialized maintenance programs had significant positive treatment effects on outcomes for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal men. Results of these analyses are described in the sections below and detailed statistical analyses are presented in Appendix E.

Analysis A: Community Maintenance Program Comparison Group vs. Enrolment Group

Participants in the Community Maintenance Program enrolment group were significantly less likely to be returned to custody than offenders in the Community Maintenance Program comparison group. This finding was true for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal male offenders. As such, referred non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal offenders in the Community Maintenance Program comparison group were 1.41 and 1.72 times more likely to experience any return to custody than offenders in the program enrolment group, respectively. A similar pattern of results emerged when the analysis was conducted for new offences only. Non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal offenders in the Community Maintenance Program enrolment group were 1.69 and 2.11 times more likely than program participants to return for a new offence, respectively than their counterparts in the Community Maintenance Program comparison group.^{Footnote 47} A summary of these readmission outcomes for non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal offenders is presented in Table 6 and Table 7, respectively).

Analysis B: Specialized Community Substance Abuse Maintenance Comparison Group vs. Enrolment Group

For both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal male offenders, participants in the specialized community substance abuse maintenance program enrolment group were significantly less likely to return to custody than offenders in the community substance abuse maintenance program comparison group. Specifically, for non-Aboriginal offenders, the program's comparison group was 1.45 times more likely to experience any return to custody and 1.56 times more likely to have returned on a new offence than the enrolment group. For Aboriginal offenders, the comparison group was 1.46 times more likely to experience any return to custody and 1.37 times more likely to return on a new offence (refer to Table 6).

Next, comparisons were drawn between the Community Maintenance Program enrolment group and the specialized community substance abuse programs enrolment group for non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal men. Overall, analyses suggested that specialized community maintenance programs had a more positive impact on readmission outcomes than the Community Maintenance Program, although the strength of these results varied between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal offenders. Results are summarized in the following analyses.

Analysis C: Relative Effectiveness of the Community Maintenance Enrolment Group vs. Comparison Group and Specialized Community Substance Abuse Maintenance Programs Enrolment Group

When non-Aboriginal offenders in the Community Maintenance Program enrolment group were compared to participants in the specialized community substance abuse maintenance program enrolment group, those in the specialized substance abuse maintenance program enrolment group were 0.73 times less likely to experience any return to custody than their counterparts in the Community Maintenance Program. However, no statistically significant difference between the two treatment groups was found when the analysis was limited to new offences only (see Table 6 and refer to Appendices for detailed results).

For Aboriginal offenders with a substance abuse need, there was no evidence to suggest that the specialized substance abuse maintenance program was more effective than the Community Maintenance Program in reducing readmission (either any return to custody or new offence on first readmission) for Aboriginal participants (refer to Table 7).^{Footnote 48} However, smaller sample sizes may have reduced the power to detect any significant difference.

Analysis D: Specialized Community Family Violence Maintenance Program Enrolment Group vs. Comparison Group

Non-Aboriginal male offenders in the specialized community family violence maintenance program comparison group were 2.19 times more likely to experience any return to custody or return for a new offence than offenders in the specialized community family violence maintenance program enrolment group. They were also 2.72 times more likely than non-Aboriginal program participants to return to custody on a new offence (refer to Table 6). Please note that small sample sizes precluded analyses for Aboriginal offenders.

Analysis E: Relative Effectiveness of the Community Maintenance Enrolment Group vs. Comparison Group and Specialized Family Violence Maintenance Programs

When offenders in the Community Maintenance Program enrolment group were compared to specialized community family violence maintenance enrolment group, offenders in the specialized community family violence maintenance enrolment group were 0.35 times less likely to experience any return to custody than offenders in the Community Maintenance Program enrolment program. There was no significant difference between the two group with respect to returns for a new offence (refer to Table 6).^{Footnote 49} Given the small sample size, these analyses were not conducted for Aboriginal offenders.

Objective 4: Cost-Effectiveness

FINDING 11: Although the costs of delivering the Community Maintenance Program and a specialized community substance abuse maintenance program were comparable, the cost per completion was higher for the Community Maintenance Program due to lower completion rates.

The average enrolment and completion rates and expenditures for the Community Maintenance Program and the specialized community substance abuse maintenance program were calculated based on values from FY 2007/08 and FY 2008/09.^{Footnote 50} To calculate the average cost per enrolment and per completion, the average expenditures were divided by the average enrolment numbers and by the average completion numbers, respectively. The results are summarized in Table 8.

The average costs per participant enrolled in the Community Maintenance Program and the specialized community substance abuse maintenance program were approximately $961 and $980, respectively. However, the Community Maintenance Program was less cost-efficient than the specialized community substance abuse maintenance program in terms of completions. Consequently, the cost per completion for the Community Maintenance Program was 21% higher than the cost per completion for the specialized community substance abuse maintenance program ($1,962 vs. $1,627, respectively).

FINDING 12: The Community Maintenance Program was estimated to be more cost-efficient than the delivery of multiple maintenance programs for offenders with multiple needs, although this could not be examined directly due to lack of accurate financial and enrolment data for the community family violence maintenance program.

One of the goals of the Community Maintenance Program is to reduce the need for referrals to multiple programs. Among offenders who were referred to participate in the Community Maintenance Program, 23% had both substance abuse and family violence treatment needs.^{Footnote 51} At the time of the evaluation, accurate financial, enrolment, and completion data were not available for other specialized maintenance programs in the community. Nonetheless, for those offenders who had two or more needs, the cost of delivering multiple maintenance programs in the community could be less efficient compared to the delivery of the single Community Maintenance Program if program completion and effectiveness were comparable.

It is important to interpret these cost results in the context of the results in the Effectiveness Section. The Community Maintenance Program was more effective than the untreated comparison group in reducing readmissions. However, for non-Aboriginal offenders with substance abuse and family violence treatment needs, the Community Maintenance Program was not as effective in reducing the likelihood of readmission as the specialized maintenance programs, although no differences were observed between the groups with respect to a new offence on first return to custody. Furthermore, the present evaluation did not examine the relative effectiveness of the Community Maintenance Program compared to participation in two specialized maintenance programs (i.e., substance abuse and family violence) due to the small number of offenders who were enrolled in both specialized programs. Thus, although the Community Maintenance Program is presumed to be more cost-efficient than the delivery of multiple maintenance programs, it is not known if the single program would be more effective in reducing readmission than participation in multiple programs. Of note, readmission is associated with increased cost of incarceration compared to community maintenance, as well as increased costs of the police, court and other criminal justice systems and services.

Objective 5: Unintended Outcomes

The evaluation did not identify any unintended outcomes resulting from the implementation of the Community Maintenance Program.

Conclusion

The present evaluation replicated the positive treatment effect of the Community Maintenance Program on readmission compared to no treatment that was reported in the evaluation of CSC's Correctional Programs (Nafekh et al., 2009). In addition, this evaluation examined the relative effectiveness of the Community Maintenance Program and specialized maintenance programs in the community. For non-Aboriginal offenders with substance abuse and family violence treatment needs, the specialized maintenance programs were associated with more significant reductions in returns to custody compared to the Community Maintenance Program. There was no difference between the programs with respect to readmission for a new offence on first return. For Aboriginal offenders, participants in the specialized substance abuse maintenance program were as likely as participants in the Community Maintenance Program to experience any return to custody and return for new offence. With respect to family violence, small Aboriginal offender sample sizes precluded comparative analyses.

These results, however, were based on data on a subsample of all Community Maintenance Program participants and excluded those who enrolled in the program since 2007. Moreover, although the cost of delivering the Community Maintenance Program is comparable to that of specialized substance abuse maintenance program in the community, the cost per completion is higher for Community Maintenance as a result of a lower program completion rate. Recent basic enrolment data for the Community Maintenance Program and specialized substance abuse maintenance program in the community indicate that there has been a substantial shift in enrolment in FY 2007/08 and 2008/09 where enrolment in the Community Maintenance Program increased by 135% while enrolment in specialized substance abuse maintenance decreased by 65%. However, the Community Maintenance Program completion rate remained lower (49% vs. 60.2%, respectively).

The finding that the Community Maintenance Program had a lower program completion rate relative to other programs was also reported in the evaluation of Correctional Programs (Nafekh et al., 2009). It was recommended that CSC strengthen the Community Maintenance Program to increase the number of successful program completions. In response, the Correctional Operations and Programs Sector proposed specific actions to address the recommendation and a management review of the strategy to be completed by March 2011. The development of an ICPM, of which the Community Maintenance Program is a part, has been completed and is undergoing a pilot testing.

Potential cost-savings as a result of increased efficiency in program delivery (i.e., providing the single Community Maintenance Program to offenders with multiple needs rather than multiple specialized maintenance programs) could not be assessed in the present evaluation, as reliable 2007/08 and 2008/09 data on enrolment, completion, and expenditures for specialized family violence maintenance programs in the community were not available at the time of evaluation. Nonetheless, it is important to recognize that the cost of delivering the Community Maintenance Program per offender enrolled was comparable to that of delivering specialized substance abuse maintenance program. Thus, for offenders who have multiple needs, the Community Maintenance Program could potentially result in substantial cost-savings if the effectiveness of the single program is comparable to those of multiple specialized maintenance programs.

Finally, future evaluations will need to examine the relative effectiveness, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of the Community Maintenance Program and specialized maintenance programs in the community. Since the Community Maintenance Program was implemented in such a way as to gradually replace specialized maintenance programs in the community, it is important to ensure that archival program enrolment, completion, and financial data are available for future evaluations in order to enable examination of the relative effectiveness of specialized maintenance programs in the community and the Community Maintenance Program (e.g., through a quasi-experimental cohort study).

RECOMMENDATION 1. In order to provide further direction regarding the use of specialized versus generic maintenance programs in the community, CSC should complete specific analyses to re-assess the effectiveness, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of the Community Maintenance Program as part of the scheduled research to be conducted on the Integrated Correctional Program Model pilot. Furthermore, in accordance with CSC's approved 5-year evaluation plan, CSC should re-evaluate the relative effectiveness of maintenance programs in the community as part of the evaluation of CSC's Correctional Reintegration Programs.

RECOMMENDATION 2. CSC should ensure that accurate future and archival enrolment, completion, and expenditure data are available to allow additional comparisons between the Community Maintenance Program and all specialized maintenance programs in the community.

RECOMMENDATION 3. CSC should identify and address the reasons for low completion rates of the Community Maintenance Program.

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Appendices

Appendix A: Commissioner's Directive 726: Correctional Programs

According to CD 726: Correctional Programs (CSC, 2003a), offenders are to

"be assigned to a correctional program based on their Correctional Plan and on established correctional program selection criteria"

(p. 3). Furthermore, CD 726: Correctional Programs (CSC, 2003a) specifies that correctional programs must:

1. be based on theory and supporting research (an empirically-based model of change);
2. target criminogenic factors;
3. address the diverse needs of women, Aboriginal and other groups of offenders with special requirements;
4. be skills-oriented;
5. take into account the particular characteristics of offenders to help ensure that they derive maximum benefit from the program (responsivity);
6. address the particular risk and need profiles of offenders through their scope, intensity, duration and type of group setting (program intensity);
7. ensure a continuum of care between institutions and the community (continuity of care);
8. include a detailed program description;
9. include a plan for monitoring and evaluation; and
10. be delivered using proven treatment methods, in the least restrictive environment possible consistent with staff, offender and public safety, and according to approved standards. (CSC, 2003a, p. 3.)

Appendix B: Community Maintenance Program: Background

The Community Maintenance Program framework (Yazar, 2003) is based on the relapse prevention model, which is a cognitive-behavioral treatment technique that focuses on teaching individuals alternate responses to high risk situations. It was initially developed to prevent substance abuse relapse following treatment (Marlatt & Gordon, 1985) but was adapted for use with sexual reoffending (Laws, 1999). To date, relapse prevention is the most common model underlying most of CSC's treatment programs. The Community Maintenance Program is also based on the self-regulation model (Ward & Hudson, 1998), which was designed to address the limitations of the relapse prevention model. The self-regulation model describes two possible goals regarding reoffending (i.e., avoidance and approach) and two possible strategies (i.e., active and passive) that result in four possible offence pathways (i.e., passive or active avoidance, and automatic or explicit approach). Treatment strategies differ depending on the offence pathway that is applicable for the offender of interest. Further, the Community Maintenance Program is also based on a coping model of criminal recidivism (Zamble & Quinsey, 1997), which implies that treatment should be based on the identification of an offender's individual offence path and precursors and stress active and collaborative problem-solving.

To summarize, the development of the Community Maintenance Program was based on the following guidelines (Yazar, 2003):

• Based on a relapse prevention or self-management model of treatment;
• A follow-up program to maintain already learned skills, rather than teaching new skills;
• Focus on applying skills to everyday problems which offenders experience;
• Written and delivered using a simplified and jargon-free language;
• Readily comprehensible and usable by graduates of the different programs which would "feed" into it;
• Continuous intake to enable an offender to begin maintenance quickly, if not immediately, upon entry into the community;
• Be capable of being delivered either individually or in a group format to increase availability and accessibility; and
• Recognize the risk and need principles of effective correctional interventions (Andrews, Zinger, Hoge, Bonta, & Cullen, 1990) - that is, target the criminogenic needs of moderate or high risk offenders.

The Community Maintenance Program consists of a cycle of 12 weekly two-hour sessions (Yazar, 2003). Six of the sessions are structured and consist of skills rehearsal: review and practice of six core skills clusters common to many correctional treatment programs. The remaining six sessions are less structured, and consist of the application of the core skills to everyday problems, obstacles, and high risk situations. The skills and application sessions alternate, with the full cycle requiring approximately 90 days to complete. Each of these sessions is independent from one another, and as such, offenders may begin or terminate the program at any point in the cycle. Program participants may also repeat sessions or the entire cycle as necessary to address their needs.

The Community Maintenance Program also aims to enhance risk management in the community by providing parole officers with regular and comprehensive information about dynamic risk. Alternating bi-weekly sessions, called self-management sessions, focus on reviewing individual risk factors and high risk situations, as well as coping strategies. This information is recorded in casework records in CSC's automated Offender Management System (OMS) for information purposes (CSC, 2004a).

Community Maintenance Program: Assessment of Skill Competence Prior to and After Treatment

A core component of the Community Maintenance Program was the development of comprehensive dynamic risk and skills measures to assess risk and need (skill competence) before and after the program. As of 2008,^{Footnote 52} participant performance in the Community Maintenance Program is measured using pre-post program ratings (CSC, 2008b). The pre-program rating summary is designed to help identify the participant's risk factors and level of skill in the six core skill areas, and includes summary of life style and other risk factors, and responsivity factors. The post-program rating summary is completed by the facilitator immediately following the program, and indicates the level of skill knowledge and understanding and application demonstrated by the participant during the program. The program facilitator also completes a "summary of current risk factors" which is an inventory of indicators of increased risk for harmful behaviour. The summary is completed on an ongoing basis to monitor progress and help identify the need for immediate intervention as well as upon completion of the program to determine the need for continued participation in the Community Maintenance Program.

Appendix C: Evaluation Matrix

Appendix D: Evaluation Strategy

Staff and Contracted Service Provider Surveys

Staff and contracted service provider survey respondents who had no or limited familiarity with the CMP were asked the extent to which information about the CMP would be beneficial to their work capacity. The majority of this group (62%; n = 73) indicated that the information would be moderately to completely beneficial and the majority (78%) indicated that they would like to learn more about the CMP. Most frequently, respondents indicated that workshop or information sessions would be the best method to deliver information about the CMP (43%; n = 18), followed by email (33%; n = 14).

Study Groups for Quantitative Analyses

Description of group comparisons performed

Quantitative methods were used to compare the Community Maintenance Program enrolment group (CMP-enrolment) with different comparison groups on specific demographic and correctional variables (i.e., age, aboriginal ethnicity, risk and need). For each variable, the CMP-enrolment group was compared to a group of offenders who were assigned to, but did not participate in, the Community Maintenance Program (CMP-comparison). Furthermore, subsamples of the CMP-enrolment group with a substance abuse need (CMP-enrolment-SA) and family violence need (CMP-enrolment-FV) were respectively compared to offenders who participated in a specialized substance abuse maintenance program (SA-enrolment) and in a specialized family violence maintenance program (FV-enrolment).

Age at release

The mean of age at release for all the relevant program and comparison groups is presented in Table A2. Differences were only found among offenders who had an identified substance abuse need. Specifically, offenders who were in the specialized substance abuse maintenance program (SA-enrolment) were slightly older than those in the CMP-enrolment-SA group who had a substance abuse need.

Aboriginal Status

The proportion of Aboriginal offenders for all groups is depicted in Table A3. The proportion of Aboriginal offenders in the CMP-enrolment group was significantly smaller than the proportion of Aboriginal offenders in the CMP-comparison group. With respect to offenders assigned to the Community Maintenance Program, a smaller proportion of participants in the CMP-enrolment were Aboriginal in comparison to those who were assigned to but who did not participate in the Community Maintenance Program (CMP-Comparison). Furthermore, a smaller proportion of offenders in the specialized family violence (FV-enrolment) group was Aboriginal compared to the CMP-enrolment group.

Risk Level

Only two groups differed in terms of level of risk. Offenders in the specialized substance abuse maintenance program had lower risk ratings compared to the subsample of offenders in the CMP-enrolment group who also had a substance abuse need (see Table A4).

Need Level

Offenders in the specialized substance abuse maintenance program had lower need levels compared to offenders in the CMP-enrolment group who had a substance abuse need. Finally, with respect to offenders with a family violence need, offenders in the CMP-comparison group were more likely to have higher need ratings than those in the CMP-enrolment group (refer to Table A5).

Appendix E: Findings

Detailed results from chi-squared tests on enrolment levels.

Substance Abuse Maintenance^{Footnote 53}

Family Violence Maintenance Program^{Footnote 54}

Description of Community Maintenance Program Completers and Dropouts

Detailed Description of Cox Regression Analysis results for Readmission
Non-Aboriginal offenders

Aboriginal Offenders

Appendix F: Offender Risk and Needs

Reintegration potential, static and dynamic risk factors

CSC conducts a full assessment and referral process on each inmate at intake, addressing their program and security needs, which may include medical, psychological, psychiatric, employment and educational assessment. With this information, a Correctional Plan is created. The Correctional Plan is the principal document that provides a comprehensive initial assessment of the offender and an identification of proposed interventions. It is the base document against which all progress is measured. The Correctional Plan provides a succinct description of the critical information that is required to understand how the offender's sentence is to be managed from inception to Warrant Expiry. The Correctional Plan is reviewed at regular intervals and Correctional Plan Progress Reports are prepared to summarize the review process (CSC, 2007a).

Prior to release, a Community Strategy is developed, built upon the Correctional Plan Progress Reports. The Community Strategy includes a risk assessment, outlines how the various dynamic factors will continue to be addressed in the community, how the offender will be monitored in the community and determines the level of intervention to be applied upon the offender's release to the community (CSC, 2009e).

Motivation level is re-assessed against the following criteria:

• Recognition that a problem exists with lifestyle, behaviour and resulting consequences;
• Level of comfort with problem and its impact on offender's life;
• Level of feeling of personal responsibility for the problem(s);
• Willingness to change or intention to fully participate in correctional plan;
• Possession of skills, knowledge required to effect change in behaviour (e.g., is ready to change);
• Level of external support from family, friends or other community members; and,
• The offender's case management strategy group.

Reintegration potential is assessed based on the following criteria:

• Score on the Statistical Information on Recidivism - Revised 1 (SIR-R1) scale;
• Level of intervention based on static factors;
• Level of intervention based on dynamic factors;
• Security reclassification scale outcome; and; et,
• Level of motivation.

Static factors are based on historical information related to risk that is available at the time of the offender's admission to federal custody. The SIR-R1 scale is used in analyzing static factors. The SIR-R1 combines measures of demographic information and criminal history in a scoring system that yields probability estimates of success or failure within three years of release (CSC, 2007b).

The dynamic level of intervention is based on the assessment of dynamic factors. Dynamic factors are based on information related to the offender's needs that are available at the time of the offender's admission into federal custody. When offenders undergo their initial assessment upon intake into the correctional system, part of the assessment involves administering the Dynamic Factor and Identification Analysis (DFIA).^{Footnote 55} The DFIA assesses dynamic factors. It contains seven components: employment, marital/family, associates/social interaction, substance abuse, community functioning, personal/emotional orientation, and attitudes.